Trinh Tuan - Previous Sales

Trinh Tuan’s lacquer paintings are aesthetically rich and his work evokes curiosity and interest. Whether two figures are joined in an embrace or depicted with their backs against each other, Tuan has a remarkable ability to tell a story about love, loneliness, betrayal or obscure emotions. The artist questions what is real and what is an illusion. His scenes have the power to evoke unworldly beauty while concurrently including bits of reality in their seemingly simple titles such as "My Home", "Thinking of Love" and "Distant Thoughts". There is often an aura that shines behind the heads of his subjects, a mysterious touch that brings light and warmth to his art and perhaps symbolizes hope or resolve.
Trinh Tuan is adored by his students and rightfully honored as one of the top lacquer artists in Vietnam. Many of Trinh Tuan’s followers claim that his sense of humor is equally balanced with his sensitivity toward human emotion. Apart from being meticulous and labor-intensive works, Trinh Tuan’s paintings are admired internationally because they are simply beautiful.

Please click here to return to available works in our gallery by Trinh Tuan.

Trinh Tuan - Meeting Marilyn Monroe
Lacquer, pigments, eggshell on wood
(120cm x 145cm)
The sentence above is intentionally wrong gramatically and should be "vống say tóc phụ nữ các kiểu" which roughly translated means "We curve and dry all women's hairstyles" but when the word "toc" (hair) is omitted to convey a humourous meaning of "we curve and dry women into many shapes and forms." This writing often appeared on pavements in front of beauty salons in Hanoi before the Vietnam War.
Private Collection - San Francisco